War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to read more

War is a ritual, a deadly ritual, not the result of aggressive self-assertion, but of self-transcending identification. Without loyalty to tribe, church, flag or ideal, there would be no wars.

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives.

The essence of democracy is not that everyone makes and administers laws but that lawgivers and rulers should be dependent read more

The essence of democracy is not that everyone makes and administers laws but that lawgivers and rulers should be dependent on the people's will in such a way that they may be peaceably changed if conflict occurs.

Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is read more

Power always has to be kept in check; power exercised in secret, especially under the cloak of national security, is doubly dangerous.

Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.

Beware lest in your anxiety to avoid war you obtain a master.

There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute read more

There is perhaps no better way of measuring the natural endowment of a soul than by its ability to transmute dissatisfaction into a creative impulse. The genuine artist is as much a dissatisfied person as the revolutionary, yet how diametrically opposed are the products each distills from his dissatisfaction.

It can not even be said that the State has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to read more

It can not even be said that the State has ever shown any disposition to suppress crime, but only to safeguard its own monopoly of crime.

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.

This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but read more

This is, I say, the time for all good men not to go to the aid of their party, but to come to the aid of their country.